Seal Bowl

This graceful carving represents a sleek, swimming seal, gliding beneath the water with head and rear flippers extended. The bowl’s elegant simplicity and perfectly proportioned form are unsurpassed within the tradition. The artist’s intently felt representation of the seal functions as an homage to the animal upon which the people depended so greatly. Expanding this concept, the bowl’s low oval form, typical of Chugach style, appears to represent a seal’s open body, which provided the oil the bowl was intended to contain. The artist’s consummate skill is especially visible in his handling of the narrow rim, carved in two delicate parallel ridges. A similar double line within the bowl, together with shallow depressions, activates the interior surface.